This invention relates to the field of lighting, and particularly to tracklight and downlight fixtures that are normally ceiling mounted.
Prior art tracklight and downlight fixtures that depend from a ceiling are typically bare reflector lamps or cylindrical metal cans painted black or white. The result is a purely functional lighting, usually creating an ugly, cluttered ceiling, without aesthetic values. Some residential fixtures decorative glass shades that have a groove, engaged by three equally-spaced radial thumb-screws in a fitter that keeps the shade from falling off the fixture. The shade holders and fitters are bulky and ill-fitting to the point where they are often tilted out of square; and if the screws are over-tightened, delicate glass shades may break under differential thermal expansion between the fixture and the shade.
The principal object of the present invention is to provide a lighting fixtures with decorative aesthetics that may be selected by a user from a variety of styles, including personalized custom designs. Another object of the invention is to provide a decorative shade attachment to a tracklight or downlight fixture that is simple, easy to install and remove and is inexpensive to manufacture.
The objects of the present invention is achieved by a simple, reliable and inexpensive method for attaching decorative shades of any material to generally cylindrical lighting fixtures, in which the fixture housing has an external ring groove above and below a shade fitter. The shade fitter is then axially held in place between a pair of external, resilient rings in the ring grooves. In a preferred embodiment the resilient rings are made of a clear, heat resistant plastic material that shows the underlying colors of the light fixture and shade.
The present invention achieves the object of the invention by providing decorative shades that may be selected from an inventory or custom made for a customer, such as a restaurant, hotel or retail chain. Another advantage is that similar decorative elements may be added to tracks according to the applicants"" co-pending application entitled DECORATIVE LIGHTING TRACK, whereby light fixtures and lighting tracks can have a matched decorative theme. The structure of the invention, in which a shade fitter is axially held on a fixture housing between external resilient rings in ring grooves is simple, inexpensive and nearly invisible, and the resilient rings do not apply thermal stresses to even the most fragile decorative shades.